The Brussels Sprout

Social Media has become intertwined with the business market of today. This means businesses need to provide products or services that are exciting and unique in order to entice people to share the news. I had a recent dining experience that proved this fact to be true.

Living in the Tri-State area, there is certainly no shortage of restaurants to choose from regardless of  what your preferences or needs may be.  The biggest challenge seems to be trying to create a short list that narrows your selection down to a few places that cater to your food, atmosphere, location and price preferences. Luckily there are tools such as Eater, NY Magazine, Zagat, Foodspotting, Facebook,& Foursquare  that can help a diner create their short list.  Recently I added a wonderful Lebanese place to my final list, by the name of Ilili located in the Gramecy Park/Flatiron section of Manhattan, and I learned about it from someone on Twitter.

Now I will admit that I do follow and know several “foodies” in the NY Metro area, but it was actually a friend of mine who works at the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) that first suggested IlIli. The recommendation was seconded by another Twitter follower who chimed in with rave reviews about the Brussels sprouts.  While Brussels sprouts are certainly an acquired taste that may not cause most people to rush into a restaurant, I happen to like them. The chef at Ilili is outstanding at preparing them and in my opinion could change almost anyone’s mind about these little cabbages.

My fellow diners and I really enjoyed the Brussels sprout dish at Ilili which were accompanied by grapes, walnuts, a fig puree, & mint yogurt. It was actually the highlight of my meal, and my inspiration to write this blog post.   I could have easily picked any of a number of 26 rated restaurants in the Zagat listings, but I took a risk and I relied on my network to lead me in the right direction. This time, it certainly paid off in spades.

Amazing food and extremely friendly and attentive staff. I’m definitely coming back. Thank you!…From a patron posted on the Ilili Facebook wall

The restaurant’s core concepts appear to provide excellent service and to offer a great product and allows word of mouth in the social networks to do the rest. This is very transparent when you see how the positive feedback found in the social networks is driving business into the restaurant just like it did with my friends and I.   Ilili is an excellent example of a business that allows its network to do the marketing for it. Ilili has a Facebook page and you can follow them on Twitter to stay connected with their happenings and to see what others are saying. So I ask you this question…What are your Brussels sprouts?

Jeff Koons Balloon Dogs, a remarkable example by Seth Godin

What comes to mind when you hear the word remarkable? For that matter, how often do you hear the word remarkable being used, and when you do, is it really used in the right context?  How many times do you use the word remarkable? I haven’t given this much thought until I spent some time on the TED.com website. Thanks to a recent post by HubSpot, the selection was narrowed down to view what they felt were the 13 Must-Watch Marketing TED Presentations While I agree that the presentations mentioned in the article were all top notch, Seth Godin’s was truly remarkable.

Seth calls it simply: “Best Thing Since Sliced Bread” and I have watched this video for the 6^th time this  week.  This is something I have never done with a presentation video before.  How often does this happen to you? I have read several of his books, and heard him speak before, but this video made such an impression on me that it made me want to share it my husband, my friends and with my readers immediately.

Go ahead take some time to check it out. Go on, I’ll wait….

Seth Godin’s TED Presentation

OK you are back and you are exhilarated…yea I get it!

First let’s take a look at the word remarkable. In his presentation, Seth mentions that the definition of the word is “neat”, but also means “worth making a remark about” Leave a remark! This is the concept that lays at the very heart of a company’s strategy on social networking. To anyone who is responsible for blogging, or maintaining Facebook pages and YouTube channels, etc. this is your Holy Grail!

How this plays into the importance of social media

Seth created this video in 2003 and while he doesn’t use the word “viral” he does mention how vital it is that the content you contribute in the social networking space is viewed and passed on by as many people as possible.   Wouldn’t it be great if we could get people to pass along every last video, or  business message with their friends and colleagues?  Or perhaps a special message of hope and awareness such as the one that was started by one person in support of Breast Cancer Awareness. You might have heard of this groundswell where women posted the color of their bra in their Facebook status in support of the cause. This was quite a unique approach to getting people to react which quickly grew into newsworthy status.

They elected to follow you, they want to hear from you on a frequent basis and they look forward to reading your updates about what’s new

With the availability of popular networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, it would be detrimental for a brand not to spend time and money on staff to monitor and maintain these mediums.  Likewise it has become necessary to develop an execution plan to work within the social media space as well. This doesn’t necessarily mean spending an absurd amount of money on an agency to come up with a  celebrity voiced over character for your  brand’s Facebook wall.  Rather it means taking time to listen to your followers and to find out what may engage them. Discover what will ignite their passion for your brand. As Seth says over and over again in the video, “Give the people what they want and maybe they will tell their friends”.  Otaku! What people are obsessed about that may just get them to tell their friends… [Fast Forward to 2011] …on Facebook.

Strategy sustainable?

While being remarkable is a key to viral marketing, I would also argue it’s equally important to develop a sustainable strategy. Will you have interesting content to continually and effectively communicate with your followers once the buzz dies down? Can the networks continue to communicate your message while adhering to your campaigns direction? Was the campaign worth it in the end? Did it give what the followers wanted and was the message delivered in a creative way that made people talk about it and pass it on to others?

Lastly on a personal note, people make a difference

I am training for my first Triathlon this year, so getting in the enjoyable workouts that are required has become important to me. Luckily I find myself fortunate enough to be a current member of the Woodbury NY Equinox Fitness Club with their excellent team of instructors such as Tripp Doherty. Tripp was a stockbroker sometime ago, and as we continue on our journey with him, we learn more and more of how his life back then hit a very dark point. Now as a full time spin instructor, accomplishing things he never imagined back then like completing the Ironman triathlon, he claims he has never been happier.  One liners of passion scream from his lungs such as “Carpe Diem” and “All battles were won before they were fought”.  I am not the only one who writes about Tripp, Jack Briant started a blog dedicated to the “Tripp Experience” and calls it ” Svengali“. I just read one of his latest post’s “Enthusiasm” on how he didn’t know what to make of Tripp at first.  I chuckled at this knowing the feeling all too well. I remembered when I entered the spin room for the first time a year ago as he was jumping up and down and talking the whole time while playing a whole bunch of random music throughout the class that took place at the twilight hours of the morning, I couldn’t help but think… what is this?  Now his remarkable style, and motivational personality continue to drive in a loyal group of spinners that go so far as to sign up for his class at 4am the day before his classes are held to be guaranteed a seat for the show. I like to think of it as a movement, a remarkable movement.

So what or who is your purple cow? What are you obsessed about that makes you get up early or drive far away to get to?  What is your otaku? Tell your friends here and consider this when laying out a social media strategy.

Small Business Saturday at Penn Station/MSG

Ken Chenault, CEO of American Express/Amex was on the Today show this morning to promote Small Business Saturday.  He appeared passionate about the new movement as he says there is room for everyone; you can shop at the Big Box retailers on Black Friday, online for Cyber Monday and now “Shop Small” on Small Business Saturday.

Taken from their Facebook page, Amex describes the mission of Small Business Saturday as follows:

First there was Black Friday, then Cyber Monday. This year, November 27th is the first ever Small Business Saturday, a day to support the local businesses that create jobs, boost the economy and preserve neighborhoods around the country. Small Business Saturday is a national movement to drive shoppers to local merchants across the U.S.

A couple of weeks ago I teamed up with Jeff Namnum and his LITweetup group as we joined forces to help spread the word of Small Business Saturday to the local Long Island, NY community.  Nearby New York City was the first city in the nation to proclaim November 27th “Small Business Saturday” as Mayor Bloomberg and American Express encouraged other cities to participate.  So with very limited time, we reached out to our own networks and helped spread the word and educated those on how they can promote their Long Island small business through Facebook and other Social Media avenues.  I was able to reach out to John Chae at Yummy Sushi Huntington to utilize Small Business Saturday to raise awareness and promote his restaurant gift certificates.  I was also able to get the Small Business Saturday promotions implemented quickly for my husband’s photography e-studios: Furry Paws Pet Portraits and Real Portrait Images.

At that time, Small Business Saturday’s Facebook page only had a mere 100,000 followers.  According to AllFacebook.com, The Small Business Saturday Facebook page is the fastest growing new page on Facebook. More than 850,000 ‘likes’ in just over two weeks.  With the multichannel advertising support including Facebook Cost Per Click, full page ads in the Wall Street Journal, television ads, on Penn Station/Madison Square Garden’s big board, plus word of mouth from folks like our group, they now have over 1 million.

Throughout the past couple of weeks, they updated their Facebook page wall with interesting statistics and great reasons to shop small such as:

• For every year over the last decade, 60%-80% of new jobs were generated by small businesses. Another great reason to shop small!
• For every $100 spent at a local small business, $68 returns to the community.

Amex even offered $100 worth of Facebook advertising support for small businesses that applied before the November 18^th deadline and who qualified. We applied to support Furry Paws Pet Portraits/FPPP e-studio and received the acceptance email a couple days later…

“Your ad has been reviewed and approved to run between November 12th and 27th*. Within three weeks after your campaign’s completion you will receive a report via email detailing your ad’s performance.”

Although we will not see ad performance statistics for a while, FPPP is already seeing a significant lift in traffic/daily post views on the Facebook page, with a lift in orders on Thanksgiving and Black Friday from last year. We shall see what happens tomorrow, and the results in a couple of week, if any lift correlates with the Amex/Facebook ad.

As if this campaign wasn’t big enough for a “small” cause, Amex on top of all this is donating $1 up to $1,000,000 for each like on their Small Business Saturday Facebook page to Girls Inc., a charity that helps empower young women to be entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

Oh and one more great thing, Amex is offering  a $25 credit to the patron who “shops small” with their pre-registered AMEX card on Small Business Saturday. So these small businesses are able to offer a great incentive to shop with them, while it doesn’t affect their already fragile bottom line.

What do you think of this local community economic support promotion?

Foursquare Checkin

With hopes for a black, Black Friday, well known retailers such as Toys R Us and JC Penney are testing the waters and encouraging customers to play the game and reap the benefits with location based services.

But how many people are currently using these mobile apps such as Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite, Whrrl and now Facebook places? Pew reports a number as low as 4% of online Americans use location based services. Is this an accurate picture, and/ or can we expect a rapid change?

For example Gap Inc. earlier this month gave away 10,000 pairs of jeans to people who “checked in” at stores using Facebook Places. In today’s WSJ article: A High-Tech Edge on Black Friday they reported that in many of the Gap locations, they gave away their limit within minutes and offered all other check-ins a 40% discount. Seems like a good response to their test, however free is an offer that is hard to refuse.  Gap’s latest promotion for Black Friday  includes a fund raising component and discount. Check in and receive 30% off any one item and Gap will donate $1 to Camp Interactive in the name of foursquare co-founders Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai.  Still a good deal as well as heartfelt, but will it be good enough?

To me, Check in seems to be ready for a 2010 Black Friday. It’s fun and has a friendly viral component to it. Perhaps retailers like these on the About Foursquare rundown list, which is a list of every national foursquare Black Friday deal, could edge that 4% percentage up a bit, or a lot.

What are your predictions?

Happy Thanksgiving from the iTwitterCoach team!

As the calendar turns over to our last summer month, I figure it’s time for me to put down the ipad (after I finished the quick great read of “Talking to Girls About Duran Duran”) and start getting my thoughts down on paper.  Over the past two months, I have spent a lot of time listening, reading, and learning.  In the past several years, social media space has been full speed ahead on the concord.  Remember when we were poking friends on Facebook? Now we are cheering for groundbreaking campaigns such as Procter and Gamble’s Old Spice Guy Yet I felt like I was losing touch of what social media was meant to be, social. I had to stop myself, unbuckle the seat belt and relax in the back yard with my two Jacks as I grounded myself.  In this process, I came up with 5 tips that seemed to gel with me.

1. Fire Your Marketing Manager…and Hire a Community Manager

This was a recent Harvard Business Review(HBR) hot title of a blog post.  No they didn’t mean it, but it makes a very good point to have internal qualified staff to help manage the company’s social media.  As companies grapple with how to incorporate social media into their business strategy, they may also be struggling with an existing team who may not be fit to play the social media role or assume that all this work can be done externally through the consultant and or agency alone.  Larger companies are slowly recognizing the importance and investing in a hierarchy of internal staff from Director to Analyst level that owns social media with a designated person who plays a champion role. The consultant therefore has an internal dedicated team to work with who executes campaigns and moderates the networks as part of their daily routine.

2. Have a Strategy in Place

As mentioned above,  in any discipline within a business, there should be a strategy and implementation process in place. This is no different for social media.  Step one in building a strategy is listening to your followers and customers. An organization needs to know what the general sentiment about itself is in the social media community, which may take time.  But this is your foundation; make sure it’s a sturdy framework before you start to build a village.

3. Deliver Happiness!

If you have not read the new book Delivering Happiness by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, then stop right now and go ahead and order it for delivery or ebook reader (Just come back here when you’re done). It’s a must read. OK, now that you are done with that, your premise for adding social media should be so that your followers and friends feel good about your company/brand. Tony has examples of customer service that may seem extreme, as his team is encouraged to even field a call asking “where can I find a local pizzeria”. His staff was selected very carefully and was even given a choice to take $3,000 to leave if they wanted to before they were hired. He wanted to make sure that he built a business empire that was true to his beliefs with people that can carry the message in their daily responsibilities and lives. Tony is very well respected by his team and is well known to be just as personable on twitter.  The brand is fun and the company consistently generates great stories with different perspectives from its employees, customers and loyal followers. The company continues to operate successfully and is able to keep its unique culture even after its acquisition by Amazon.

4. Have a Response Team and Plan in Place if Something Should Go Wrong

This goes back to the concept of having a strategy.  Reputation management in companies has been closely controlled as marketing and PR teams deployed traditional one way messages. This means that promotions were typically sent to customers and prospects via traditional marketing channels leaving a small window of opportunity for a disgruntled customer to express his/her comments publicly and potentially leading to a damaging groundswell . Entering social media space opens the avenue both ways. The public’s response and opinion of your brand can now be seen very easily and response to your promotions as well as business practices can be seen almost instantaneously.    The downside of this is an increased risk for a situation that can spiral out of control very quickly if not monitored. This is why having strategies, policies and processes with a proper team in place to manage and maintain your reputation are keys to minimizing this risk.

5. Provide Educational Content Which Represents Your Brand Well

A blog shouldn’t be cumbersome. As in any thriving company, news should be happening every day. These stories can be explained through pictures, video and in print.  Even Old Spice educated us as they took an old stodgy brand and revitalized it. They schooled us by letting us know that this isn’t your father’s Old Spice anymore.

BONUS—Turn That Frown Upside Down

Set good intentions for your followers and friends.  CEO of Twitter @Ev recently tweeted a great example of setting the tone for your followers “Sign in pediatric office: URGENT: Smile until 5:01pm.” Make sure your networks are bright, light and joyful. Visuals usually do this trick, so talk to your creative director and get the creative team involved in how to jazz up the networks.

What do you think? Share your story with us in the comments.

Thanks to Jonathan Tafarella for editing this post.

UPS delivering the iPad

This morning all I could think about was UPS don’t fail me now.  Nervous with anticipation I left the house to my two jacks and husband with instructions to give the UPS man 15 minutes of fame.  Took off to my usual Saturday morning yoga class where shavasana was truly a mental test. Your not supposed to think about anything but your breath. Well sorry folks, it was inhale, iPad, exhale, iPad…

Walked into the house and there was the brown box sitting on the kitchen table with a big grin on my husband’s face. Woohoo! UPS delivers!

I was a late adopter to the iPhone, using my Razr as long as I could before I finally couldn’t stand it anymore. I was a Verizon gal, so the jump was a cautious one. But as soon as I had the experience of my very own iPhone, I understood what I was missing all that time. I made sure that it wasn’t going to happen again. So when Mashable posted that preorder was March 12^th for the iPad, I marked it on the calendar .

Now I have to admit I was one of those who initially had that “iPad”? reaction to its name.  Certainly I was not alone as itampon started to trend on twitter.  I am over it now, however , the great news is that the hullabaloo over the name increased awareness of a charity for young women in Uganda. I donated yesterday as  I encourage you to.. (check out the full story here with details how to donate on Blogher)

“So what does it do?” is a big question from my friends.  My short time of playing with it allows me to say it’s a beautiful e-reader, a gorgeous picture to watch Netflix video on demand and a large screen for tweeting using Tweetdeck. The biggest disappointment comes from facebook, as other apps made it to the deadline, we are forced to use the iPhone or web browser version.

As you can imagine, iPad madness consumed Twitter over the past 24 hours. Martha Stewart tweeted “Look what the Easter Bunny brought over today! Begins with an “IP” showing us a picture of her iPad.  Robert Scoble tweeted and shot live video from a California apple store line. One of his many interesting tweets…

@Scobleizer: Why would Apple co-founder @stevewoz need to stand in line? I talked w/ Woz earlier and he says “Cause the line is fun.”

And tweets all morning long included painfully waiting for the UPS truck to glorious iPad thoughts dancing in people’s heads…

@cc_chapman: Today is iPadurday….

@justin: Already awake. It really is nerd Christmas.

In a nutshell, it is magical. Steve Jobs got that right. What are your thoughts?  Are you a second generation person or did you convert like me, as they say, the early adopter?

Jackie giving the iPad a test drive reading the WSJ

Image from the Norwegian Olympic Curling Team's Pants Facebook fan page

Once again we are shown that it is IMPOSSIBLE to predict what will go viral, what will be popular and it certainly doesn’t take a big fat budget to get there. But monitoring your brand in social media can lead to unplanned yet successful business opportunities.

As the 2010 Winter Olympics comes to an end, we can reflect on many surprises: The US Bobsled team won a gold medal, the US hockey team made it into the finals, as well as the fact that there was not enough snow in Vancouver Canada with 50 degree temperatures delaying certain events.

The Olympics and its vendors planned their online and mobile experiences well. The Olympics made it onto the iphone with their own app and NBC had their own dedicated website where once logged in, one can view exclusive video and highlights. They even had the Olympic pulse tweets which included updates from competitors such as Apolo Anton Ono and Rachel Flatt.

While the official Vancouver 2010 Olympic Facebook Fan page has well over 1 million fans, the Norwegian Olympic Curling Team’s Pants fan page, has a little over a half a million fans with most of their wall updates consisting of hundreds of comments. Who would have thought? Loudmouth Golf, the makers of the pants monitored this page that was started by Tony D’Orazio, a 37-year-old curler from Rochester, N.Y.  Once the page reached 100,000 fans, Loudmouth Golf approached D’Orazio asking to post their website on the fan page in exchange for a portion of the proceeds sold. D’Orazio accepted but decided to donate the money to charity. Great story for the crazy pants, for the charity, for the Olympics, for curling, and for Facebook.  But no one could have predicted such success. Monitoring is the key, you never know where your brand, and the story, may end up.

The full story of the pants page evolution as well as the information on the charity can be viewed here from Omaha.com:

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100228/NEWS01/702289903

Image from The Norwegian Olympic Curling Team’s Pants Facebook fan page.

DMA

Just when I thought the Tweet Me and Text Me Sweethearts were the big story of the day, I see this…

From Twitter: @DMA_USA Tue 19 Jan 16:31 DMA announces search for new President & CEO – http://bit.ly/5h51Y8

…“As we enter into the new decade and are anticipating an economic resurgence, it’s more important than ever to ensure that both traditional and digital multichannel direct marketing is at the forefront of that recovery,” said Eugene Raitt, Chairman of the DMA Board of Directors.  “Bringing in new leadership to the management team focusing on the areas we intend to grow will be part of that process.  The committee will conduct an aggressive search and I’m confident that we will find an exceptionally qualified individual to fulfil the DMA’s vision and goals.”

I wonder what the new DMA will be like? Any thoughts?

J-E-T-S Jets, Jets, ha-chooo, Jets!

Comfort in sharing misery…

I have been sick for 2 weeks. But I wasn’t alone.

From Twitter: @hisilver…I caught this from a friend who has his cough for 2 weeks. I am miserable – you must be too!

Since the new year, status updates and tweets, including mine, were related to the frustration of being under the weather.

Facebook: I can’t believe I’ve got another sinus infection!

Twitter: (with a smiley face avatar) Day two of the stomach flu… Kill me :-/

And common illness hashtags include: #sick #strep #tired

#Flu on Sunday January 3^rd showed quite a spike on Twitter.

I am always interested in seeing what someone has to say about running, as I am a runner and now in training for the ½ more marathon.  So while searching for the word “running” I saw a tweet..”Why can’t my nose stop running!”

Along with the “hope you feel better” and “yes I’ve been sick for a week too” comments included the remedy suggestions of tea, rest, the very popular neti pot, chicken soup, vitamin c, vitamin d, and meds. Feel good support from the global community. I felt better knowing I wasn’t the only one.

Can’t escape it, it’s January and we are sick. Good thing we have the comfort in knowing we are not alone.  We are human and we feel crummy. Back to the J-E-T-S Jets, Jets Jets game.

Hilary JM Topper, MPA Guest Blogger

Many people fear social networking sites that include a GPS, like BrightKite and the latest one, Foursquare, for fear that their safety may be in jeopardy.  However, like with most social media sites, you can tweak the settings so only certain people know of your whereabouts.

Foursquare is a great site for both marketers and consumers!

The way it works is, consumers sign up and can check in to different locations no matter where they are.  Interestingly, the consumer may even find herself in the same vicinity as a friend or co-worker and have an opportunity to connect.  And in terms of security, the only people who can see your entries are those who you are friends with on Foursquare.  You also have an opportunity to link Foursquare with Twitter and Facebook, but this is only an option.

Every time a consumer checks in to a restaurant, bar or business, she unlocks information.  For example, if she went to a restaurant and logs in, she may find that there are particular items on the menu to order or to avoid.  The consumer also has an opportunity to give a tip on a restaurant or attraction. Then, everyone who frequents that restaurant or attraction can read what she said.  This is a powerful tool, especially if the business is given high ratings.

There is also a gaming element to Foursquare as well.  When a consumer checks into various places, she earns points and eventually can become the “mayor” of the place, which can get her freebies – free coffee, free ice cream and even free hotel stays.

For restaurants and business owners, Foursquare is a great way to promote your business.  Owners can offer free products or incentives to customers using Foursquare to lure them into the establishment.  Once you have a Mayor, you can offer something really special!  The best part is, it’s free!  There is no cost for a business to sign up and it gives a lot of exposure across a host of networking platforms.

Foursquare is used primarily on your mobile phone but you can easily see stats, your history and even your friends on your PC or Mac.

When preparing your social media plan, consider incorporating Foursquare.  As more and more people get on to the site, your audience reach will expand and you can expand it even more by offering giveaways and promotions.  It’s a great site for anyone who owns a business!

Hilary JM Topper, MPA, has nearly 30 years of public relations, advertising and marketing experience, having worked at the leading PR/Ad firms in the country including Ogilvy & Mather/PR, Ruder Finn/PR and Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmpolus/PR.  In March 1992, Hilary founded HJMT COMMUNICATIONS, LLC, a boutique Public Relations, Social Media, Event Planning & Graphic Design Agency.   The agency is located in Manhattan, Long Island and in Rochester, NY.

She has received numerous awards and honors for her accomplishments within the industry from PRWeek, Long Island Business News, Newsday, Girl Scouts of Nassau County, the Communicator, International Association of Business Communicators, Long Island Center for Business and Professional Women, Diversity Business.com and the Stevie Awards.

Hilary is committed to giving back to the community and is a board member of several not-for profit organizations and local community organizations in her hometown.

She is a published author and has given numerous speeches and seminars across the country. She is a blogger, entrepreneur, wife and mother of two. Hilary received her Bachelor of Science degree from Hunter College and her Masters in Public Administration from Baruch College. In her free time, she likes to ski, play golf and go cycling.